_Yankton_
A man and his wife had only one child, they say, whom they loved very
much. He used to go playing every day, they say; and one day he fell
into the water. His father and mother and all his relations wailed
regularly. His father was very sad, they say. He would not sleep
within the lodge; he lay out of doors, without any pillow at all. When
he lay on the ground with his cheek on the palm of his hand, he heard
his child crying. He heard him crying down under the ground, they say.
Having assembled all his relations, he spoke of digging into the
ground. The relations collected horses to be given as pay; they
collected goods and horses. Then came two old men who said they were
sacred. They spoke of seeking for the child. An old man went to tell
the father. He brought the two sacred men to the lodge. The father
filled a pipe with tobacco. He gave it to the sacred men, and said,
"If you bring my child back, I will give all this to you."
So they painted themselves; one made his body very black, the other
made his body very yellow. Both went into the deep water. So they
arrived there, they say. They talked to the wakanda. The child was not
dead; he was sitting up, alive.
The men said, "The father demands his child. We have him; we will go
homeward," they said.
"You have him; but if you take him homeward with you, he shall die.
Had you taken him before he ate anything, he might have lived. Begone
ye, and tell those words to his father."
The two men went. They arrived at the lodge, they say.
"We have seen your child; the wakanda's wife has him. We saw him
alive, but he has eaten of the food of the wakandas. Therefore the
wakanda says that if we bring the child back with us out of the water,
he shall die."
Still, the father wished to see him.
"If the wakanda's wife gives you back your child, she desires a very
white dog as pay."
"I promise to give her the white dog," said the father.
Again the two men painted themselves; the one made himself very black,
the other made himself very yellow. Again they went beneath the water.
They arrived at the place again.
"The father said we were to take the child back at any cost; he spoke
of seeing his child."
So the wakanda gave the child back to them; homeward they went with
him. When they reached the surface of the water with him, the child
died. They gave him back to his father. Then all the people wailed
when they saw the child, their relation.
They plunged the white-haired dog into the water. When they had buried
the child they gave pay to the two men.
After a while, the parents lost another child, a girl, in the same
way, they say. But she did not eat any of the wakanda's food,
therefore they took her home alive. But it was another wakanda who
took her, and he promised to give her back if they would give him four
white-haired dogs.